When a crate escorted by the FBI from New York was opened this week at the national museum of the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, Kaitip Kami instantly recognized the statue inside.

It incorporated the skull of a male ancestor of the hill tribes of Malakula, his island home, said Kami, a curator at the Vanuatu Cultural Centre.

“By looking at it, I knew straight away,” he said. “I recognize it, where it belongs, up in the bush.”

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell attended a…